Halfway down the Danube

These sorts of things aren't attacks, these are demonstrations, performances, tantrums, as a child rages at his own incompetence at accomplishing some task beyond his powers and so demonstrates, if only to himself, his lesser ability to push off the table breakable containers of useful or beautiful stuff -- a vase of flowers, a cup of coffee, a bowl of fruit. Or howling aloud and pissing on the sofa and into his own britches in sheer infantile fury.

The challenge to a civilized elder is to punish the offender without "shaking the baby" -- without inflicting permanent damage.

Quite frankly the impulse it to view the perpetrators of such hissy fits less like a child and more like a spiteful cat, using the laundry basket for a litter box. One has fewer compunctions about strangling the cat ...

It is truly horrifying.

The good news is, Bujold list founder Mike Bernardi [whom Doug may have met at WorldCon in Baltimore in 1998, when he met us], although locked in the building where he works near Liverpool Street and unsure of when/how he'll get home, is ok. Phone lines are clogged, but email apparently works.

You can also check for immediate details.

I hope this helps; be sure to take care of yourselves.

Jerrie

That was supposed to mention lj community .

That's lj user london_070705 ; sorry about clogging up the comments list, but it hasn't been printing.